MSDB– cleanup is necessary

Recently I have been asked to work on the task which is to reduce the size of MSDB database. The MSDB has grown to 20 Gigs. Well, you would say, what is the big deal with that? 20 gigs is not considered a big for database. Correct, but for MSDB, yes it is.

So, the question is - why the size has grown this much, and what would be the adverse impact it would have on the performance on my system?

I would say, there could me many reasons, like:

• Usually, we do not create user objects inside MSDB, but it is good to check
• Check if there are multiple SSIS/DTS Packages that are large, check with development team if you can store them in file system. Check the link for the list of tables refer links SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008 , SQL Server 2008 R2 , and SQL Server 2012
• There isn’t any CleanUp job configured
• There are several hundreds of jobs running i.e. LS aka Log Shipping
• And, so on….

The case:

Client has a server configured with LS for DR purpose. The LS is configured to sync every 15 minutes for several – hundreds of databases which intern inserting lots of data into the historical tables like backup, restore and log_shipping_monitor_history table –all of them had > 75 Lacks of records.

The issue for us was, that the MSDB is configured on the local drive aka where OS and binaries resides – no RAID. Also, the size of the C drive is nearing to it’s capacity – 30 Gigs and it’s quickly filling up. Well, on top of this, the database is in FULL recovery model. The reason that MSDB grows to 20 Gigs are

1. It never had CleanUp job on it,
2. there are hundreds of databases keep inserting records for backup and restore

Adverse impact:

1. Possibly, your backup would take longer than usual as it would take time to write backup and /or restore history
2. You would see timeout error when you try to dig out the reason for backup job failure

What I did was, I have created a maintenance plan for CleanUp which will call sp_delete_backuphistory which will run cleanup for below tables, per client’s request I have configured job to remove all the older data before 60 days.

• backupfile
  
• backupfilegroup
  
• backupmediafamily
  
• backupmediaset
  
• backupset
  
• restorefile
  
• restorefilegroup
  
• restorehistory
  

To complete the cleanup activity job successfully, the MSDB and tempdb will need some space to grow which is not possible in our case since we are left with only 10 Gigs of space.  Hence, I have added an addition log file and data file for tempdb and msdb on another drive where we have ample space. Schedule LOG backup for MSDB to run every 10 minutes.

And, then, I’ve invoked the CleanUp job – it took about 3 hours to finish, but it did what it should.

Took FULL backup for MSDB, change the recovery model to simple and shrink it – we were able to shrunk the MSDB successfully and bring it down to 6.5 Gigs.

Constraints and possible options:

1. We had a limited maintenance window to accomplish a task
2. Another maintenance activity has to be performed once we are done
3. Option: We could have script foreign keys and other constraint, drop constraints and keys, and delete the records. I haven’t opt this method because I personally never did this.

Take out from this post:  Do health check, and, schedule a Cleanup task for MSDB to run on regular basis.

-- Hemantgiri Goswami (http://www.sql-server-citation.com/)

photo credit: mccun934 via photopin cc

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SQL Server – Generate Calendar using TSQL

Introduction
Recently, I was asked to develop a SSRS based report for the Event Management module in MS Dynamics CRM 2011. The idea was to show a Calendar for the selected month and each cell of the calendar should display the scheduled events of that day.
Showing the events in the required format in each cell was not a big issue. The main challenge was to generate a dynamic grid of Calendar. Luckily, the CRM was deployed on-premises and I got a chance to use TSQL to generate the Calendar.
Implementation
Below is the TSQL which I came up with to generate the Calendar -

DECLARE @Month AS INT = 4 --Set the MONTH for which you want to generate the Calendar.
DECLARE @Year AS INT = 2013 --Set the YEAR for which you want to generate the Calendar.
--Find and set the Start & End Date of the said Month-Year
DECLARE @StartDate AS DATETIME = CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Year) + RIGHT('0' + CONVERT(VARCHAR, @Month), 2) + '01'
DECLARE @EndDate AS DATETIME = DATEADD(DAY, - 1, DATEADD(MONTH, 1, @StartDate));

WITH Dates
AS (
 SELECT @StartDate Dt
 
 UNION ALL
 
 SELECT DATEADD(DAY, 1, Dt)
 FROM Dates
 WHERE DATEADD(DAY, 1, Dt) <= @EndDate
 ),
Details
AS (
 SELECT DAY(Dt) CDay,
  DATEPART(WK, Dt) CWeek,
  MONTH(Dt) CMonth,
  YEAR(Dt) CYear,
  DATENAME(WEEKDAY, Dt) DOW,
  Dt
 FROM Dates
 )
--Selecting the Final Calendar
SELECT Sunday,
 Monday,
 Tuesday,
 Wednesday,
 Thursday,
 Friday,
 Saturday
FROM (
 SELECT CWeek,
  DOW,
  CDay
 FROM Details
 ) D
PIVOT(MIN(CDay) FOR DOW IN (
   Sunday,
   Monday,
   Tuesday,
   Wednesday,
   Thursday,
   Friday,
   Saturday
   )) AS PVT
ORDER BY CWeek

Output:





Hope, this will help!

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SQL Server – Generating PERMUTATIONS using T-Sql

Were you ever asked to generate string Permutations using TSql? I was recently asked to do so, and the logic which I could manage to come up at that point is shared in the below script.

DECLARE @Value AS VARCHAR(20) = 'ABCC' --Mention the text which is to be permuted
DECLARE @NoOfChars AS INT = LEN(@Value)
DECLARE @Permutations TABLE (Value VARCHAR(20)) --Make sure the size of this Value is equal to your input  string length (@Value)
 ;

WITH NumTally
AS (
 --Prepare the Tally Table to separate each character of the Value.
 SELECT 1 Num
 
 UNION ALL
 
 SELECT Num + 1
 FROM NumTally
 WHERE Num < @NoOfChars
 ),
Chars
AS (
 --Separate the Characters
 SELECT Num,
  SUBSTRING(@Value, Num, 1) Chr
 FROM NumTally
 )
--Persist the Separated characters.
INSERT INTO @Permutations
SELECT Chr
FROM Chars

--Prepare Permutations
DECLARE @i AS INT = 1

WHILE (@i < @NoOfChars)
BEGIN
 --Store the Permutations
 INSERT INTO @Permutations
 SELECT DISTINCT --Add DISTINCT if required else duplicate Permutations will be generated for Repeated  Chars.
  P1.Value + P2.Value
 FROM (
  SELECT Value
  FROM @Permutations
  WHERE LEN(Value) = @i
  ) P1
 CROSS JOIN (
  SELECT Value
  FROM @Permutations
  WHERE LEN(Value) = 1
  ) P2

 --Increment the Counter.      
 SET @i += 1

 --Delete the Incorrect Lengthed Permutations to keep the table size under control.
 DELETE
 FROM @Permutations
 WHERE LEN(Value) NOT IN (
   1,
   @i
   )
END

--Delete InCorrect Permutations.
SET @i = 1

WHILE (@i <= @NoOfChars)
BEGIN
 --Deleting Permutations which has not used "All the Chars of the given Value".
 DELETE
 FROM @Permutations
 WHERE Value NOT LIKE '%' + SUBSTRING(@Value, @i, 1) + '%'

 --Deleting Permutations which have repeated incorrect character.  
 DELETE
 FROM @Permutations
 WHERE LEN(Value) - LEN(REPLACE(Value, SUBSTRING(@Value, @i, 1), '')) != LEN(@Value) - LEN(REPLACE(@Value, SUBSTRING(@Value, @i, 1), ''))

 SET @i += 1
END

--Selecting the generated Permutations. 
SELECT Value
FROM @Permutations

Hope, this script helps!


Please share your suggestions if you have any to improve this logic.

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SQL Server – TSql to find Records matching certain criteria in all the tables of a DB.

Generally, we try to find out records matching a certain criteria from a single or few tables. However, there are times when we need to find out records matching a criteria from all the tables of a SQL Database and today I will explain you a simple way to retrieve those records.
Recently, I was asked by my colleague, who was working on a MS Dynamics CRM migration project, to let him know the records which were created after a particular date in the source. So that, he could analyze only those records and strategize the Migration process.
I quickly opened up the SSMS and came up with the below script -

USE < DBName > --Replace this with the actual DBName
GO

DECLARE @ColumnName AS VARCHAR(50) = 'CreatedOn' --The name of the column on which you need to put the criteria
DECLARE @Criteria AS VARCHAR(50) = 'CONVERT(DATE,' + @ColumnName + ') >= ''20130225''' -- The Actual criteria/WHERE Clause of the query

--The below will list the TSQL Statements which could be copied & executed in a separate query window.
SELECT 'IF EXISTS(SELECT 1 FROM ' + T.NAME + ' WHERE ' + @Criteria + ') ' + 'SELECT ''' + T.NAME + ''' TableName, * FROM ' + T.NAME + ' WHERE ' + @Criteria
FROM sys.columns C
INNER JOIN sys.tables T
 ON T.object_id = C.object_id
WHERE C.NAME = @ColumnName

The above script will list down the SELECT statements which could be copied and executed in a separate query window connecting to the same Database. On execution, you will get the list of records from each table base on the specified criteria.


Hope, this helps!

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SQL Server # Moving MASTER database in cluster environment

Few months back I have wrote post about moving MASTER and MSDB database to new location in stand alone machine.

In recent past we had a situation where customer asked us to move MASTER database to new location, below are the steps I have taken:

1.     Connect to the Server
2.     Open Configuration Manager -> SQL Server Service
3.     Right Click and say Properties
4.     Click on the Start-up Parameter
5.     Remove start-up parameter (the highlighted one)

	 -dOLDLocation\master.mdf
	 -eOLDLocation\ErrorLog
	 -lOLDLocation\mastlog.ldf

 

      6.     Add new start-up parameters with new values (per your configuration)

   

	 -dNewLocation\master.mdf
	 -eNewLocation\ErrorLog
	 -lNewLocation\mastlog.ldf

      7.    Check and confirm which node is active

      8.    PAUSE current PASSIVE Node  to avoid fail-over


      9.    Take SQL Server resources offline, i.e. SQL Server, SQL Agent, MSDTC, SQLCLUSTER Name (do not take SQL Cluster IP Offline)


    10.    Copy MASTER.MDF and MASTLOG.LDF to NEW Location ( S:\SQLDATA, yours could be different)


    11.    Log into Cluster Administrator and bring SQL Server Resources online


    12.    Resume current PASSIVE Node

 

That's all, you should be able to see your master database on new location now!!!

 

-- Regards,

Hemantgiri S. Goswami (http://www.sql-server-citation.com )

Cross posting: http://www.pythian.com/news/35829/moving-master-database-to-new-location-in-sql-cluster/

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SQL Server Database Backup Report using T-SQL

Today, I am going to share few very useful scripts which will report us on Database Backup from different view points. To get the List/History/Log of all the Successful Backups

SELECT 

  b.machine_name,

  b.server_name,

  b.database_name as DBName,

  b.backup_start_date,

  b.backup_finish_date,

  CASE 

    WHEN b.[type] = 'D' THEN 'Database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'I' THEN 'Differential database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'L' THEN 'Log'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'F' THEN 'File or filegroup'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'G' THEN 'Differential file'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'P' THEN 'Partial'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'Q' THEN 'Differential partial'

    ELSE b.[type]

  END Backup_Type,    

  b.expiration_date,

  b.[user_name],

  DATEDIFF(MINUTE,b.backup_start_date ,b.backup_finish_date) as Total_Time_in_Minute,

  b.recovery_model,

  b.backup_size/(1024 * 1024 * 1024) as Total_Size_GB,

  bf.physical_device_name as Location

FROM 

  msdb.dbo.backupset AS b

INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily AS bf

  ON b.media_set_id=bf.media_set_id

ORDER BY 

  b.backup_start_date DESC

GO

To get a list of all successful Backups taken till date for a particular Database

DECLARE @DBName AS VARCHAR(100) = 'Your Database Name'
SELECT 

  b.machine_name,

  b.server_name,

  b.database_name as DBName,

  b.backup_start_date,

  b.backup_finish_date,

  CASE 

    WHEN b.[type] = 'D' THEN 'Database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'I' THEN 'Differential database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'L' THEN 'Log'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'F' THEN 'File or filegroup'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'G' THEN 'Differential file'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'P' THEN 'Partial'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'Q' THEN 'Differential partial'

    ELSE b.[type]

  END Backup_Type,

  b.expiration_date,

  b.[user_name],

  DATEDIFF(MINUTE,b.backup_start_date ,b.backup_finish_date) as Total_Time_in_Minute,

  b.recovery_model,

  b.backup_size/(1024 * 1024 * 1024) as Total_Size_GB,

  bf.physical_device_name as Location

FROM 

  msdb.dbo.backupset AS b

INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily AS bf

  ON b.media_set_id=bf.media_set_id

WHERE

  b.database_name = @DBName  

ORDER BY 

  b.backup_start_date DESC

GO

To get the List of all Databases which are not backed up till date

SELECT

  d.name [DB_Name]

FROM

  master.sys.databases d

LEFT JOIN msdb.dbo.backupset b

  ON b.database_name = d.name

WHERE

  d.database_id IS NULL

To get the List of all Databases which are not backed up since last X days

DECLARE @LastXDays AS INT = 1

;WITH LatestBackupSet AS (

SELECT 

  b.database_name as DBName,

  b.backup_start_date LastBackedUpOn,

  b.[user_name],

  ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY b.database_name ORDER BY b.backup_start_date DESC) Rnk

FROM 

  msdb.dbo.backupset AS b

)

SELECT 

  lbs.DBName,

  lbs.LastBackedUpOn,

  lbs.[user_name]

FROM 

  LatestBackupSet AS lbs

WHERE

  DATEDIFF(DAY,lbs.LastBackedUpOn ,CURRENT_TIMESTAMP) = @LastXDays  

  AND lbs.Rnk = 1

ORDER BY 

  lbs.DBName DESC

GO

To get a list of the Latest successful backups of all Databases

;WITH LatestBackupSet AS (

SELECT 

  b.machine_name,

  b.server_name,

  b.database_name as DBName,

  b.backup_start_date,

  b.backup_finish_date,

  CASE 

    WHEN b.[type] = 'D' THEN 'Database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'I' THEN 'Differential database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'L' THEN 'Log'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'F' THEN 'File or filegroup'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'G' THEN 'Differential file'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'P' THEN 'Partial'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'Q' THEN 'Differential partial'

    ELSE b.[type]

  END Backup_Type,

  b.expiration_date,

  b.[user_name],

  DATEDIFF(MINUTE,b.backup_start_date ,b.backup_finish_date) as Total_Time_in_Minute,

  b.recovery_model,

  b.backup_size/(1024 * 1024 * 1024) as Total_Size_GB,

  bf.physical_device_name as Location,

  ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY b.database_name ORDER BY b.backup_start_date DESC) Rnk

FROM 

  msdb.dbo.backupset AS b

INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily AS bf

  ON b.media_set_id=bf.media_set_id

)

SELECT 

  machine_name,

  server_name,

  DBName,

  backup_start_date,

  backup_finish_date,

  Backup_Type,

  expiration_date,

  [user_name],

  Total_Time_in_Minute,

  recovery_model,

  Total_Size_GB,

  Location

FROM 

  LatestBackupSet AS lbs

WHERE

  lbs.Rnk = 1

ORDER BY 

  lbs.DBName DESC

GO

To get the Latest successful backup of a particular Database

DECLARE @DBName AS VARCHAR(100) = 'Your Database Name'

 

;WITH LatestBackupSet AS (

SELECT 

  b.machine_name,

  b.server_name,

  b.database_name as DBName,

  b.backup_start_date,

  b.backup_finish_date,

  CASE 

    WHEN b.[type] = 'D' THEN 'Database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'I' THEN 'Differential database'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'L' THEN 'Log'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'F' THEN 'File or filegroup'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'G' THEN 'Differential file'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'P' THEN 'Partial'

    WHEN b.[type] = 'Q' THEN 'Differential partial'

    ELSE b.[type]

  END Backup_Type,

  b.expiration_date,

  b.[user_name],

  DATEDIFF(MINUTE,b.backup_start_date ,b.backup_finish_date) as Total_Time_in_Minute,

  b.recovery_model,

  b.backup_size/(1024 * 1024 * 1024) as Total_Size_GB,

  bf.physical_device_name as Location,

  ROW_NUMBER() OVER(PARTITION BY b.database_name ORDER BY b.backup_start_date DESC) Rnk

FROM 

  msdb.dbo.backupset AS b

INNER JOIN msdb.dbo.backupmediafamily AS bf

  ON b.media_set_id=bf.media_set_id

WHERE

  b.database_name = @DBName  

)

SELECT 

  machine_name,

  server_name,

  DBName,

  backup_start_date,

  backup_finish_date,

  Backup_Type,

  expiration_date,

  [user_name],

  Total_Time_in_Minute,

  recovery_model,

  Total_Size_GB,

  Location

FROM 

  LatestBackupSet AS lbs

WHERE

  lbs.Rnk = 1

ORDER BY 

  lbs.DBName DESC

GO

To get a list of Databases that were backed-up and do not currently exist

SELECT

  DISTINCT b.database_name

FROM

  msdb.dbo.backupset b

WHERE

  DB_ID(b.database_name) IS NULL

Hope, the above given script will be of help to you. Also, I would like to request you to please add any relevant script which you feel would be useful as a comment.

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SQL Server # TSQL to Convert STRING in PROPER format

Problem Statement

SQL Server has got in-built functions to convert the given string into LOWER() or UPPER() format but it does not provides any direct way to convert it to PROPER format. A string/text is said to be in a PROPER format if all the words in that string/text starts with a CAPITAL letter.

E.g. If a string is - “Hello, how are you?”,

String in Lower format = “hello, how are you?”

String in Upper format = “HELLO, HOW ARE YOU?”

and String in Proper format = “Hello, How Are You?”

 

Implementation

Ideally, SQL Server is not the right place to implement this kind of logic, as string operations are costlier in SQL from performance perspective. it should be either implemented in the Front-End language or the Reporting Tool as this more related to the formatting. However, if this is to be implemented in SQL, the more preferred way is to use SQL-CLR function. It does not mean that we can not achieve this with T-SQL.

Today, I will share a simple T-SQL function, which could be used to convert any given string in PROPER format. Below is the script -

CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[PROPER]

(

  @StrToConvertToProper AS VARCHAR(MAX)

) 

RETURNS VARCHAR(MAX) 

AS

BEGIN

  --Trim the Text

  SET @StrToConvertToProper = LTRIM(RTRIM(@StrToConvertToProper))

  --Find the No. of Words in the Text

  DECLARE @WordCount AS INT

  SET @WordCount = LEN(@StrToConvertToProper) - LEN(REPLACE(@StrToConvertToProper,' ','')) + 1

  --Variable to track the space position

  DECLARE @LastSpacePosition AS INT = 0

  --Loop through all the words

  WHILE(@WordCount > 0)

    BEGIN

      --Set the Space Position

      SET @LastSpacePosition = CHARINDEX(' ',@StrToConvertToProper,@LastSpacePosition + 1)

      --Replace the Character

      SET @StrToConvertToProper = STUFF(@StrToConvertToProper,

                                        @LastSpacePosition + 1,

                                        1,

                                        UPPER(SUBSTRING(@StrToConvertToProper, @LastSpacePosition + 1, 1)))

      --Decrement the Loop counter                                      

      SET @WordCount = @WordCount - 1

    END

  RETURN @StrToConvertToProper

END  

When the above script is used as –

SELECT dbo.PROPER('hello, how are you?')

we get the following result - Hello, How Are You?

Conclusion

The given script could be used to convert any string in PROPER format using T-SQL. However, I would personally prefer converting the string at the Front-End or in the Reporting tool to display the string in this format.

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Last Execution Date Time of a Stored Procedure

On many forums I have found a very basic yet important query - “How can I know when was my Stored Procedure last executed?” And today through this blog I will try to answer this question.
Actually speaking, without explicit logging or tracing, it is not possible to get this information for each and every Stored Procedure of our Database. However, we can get this detail along with many other relevant information for the stored procedure having it’s execution plan currently cached on the server by using - sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats It’s a system dynamic view that returns aggregate performance statistics for cached stored procedures.Please note that this view has been introduced from SQL Server 2008.
The important thing to note is that this view returns one row for each cached stored procedure plan, and the lifetime of the row is as long as the stored procedure remains cached. When a stored procedure is removed from the cache, the corresponding row is eliminated from this view.
So, let’s see a way, using which at least we can find out the some important facts for the cached stored procedures -

USE DBName
GO
SELECT 
 O.name,
 PS.last_execution_time
FROM 
 sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats PS 
INNER JOIN sys.objects O 
 ON O.[object_id] = PS.[object_id] 
GO

P.S. Please replace the DBName with the actual name of the Database.


The above script will return the name of all the cached stored procedure of the current database with their last execution time.


For more details on this dynamics view, please refer - sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats (Transact-SQL)

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Moving MASTER Database

In my previous post we see how to move MSDB database, today we will see how to move or relocate MASTER database. While moving MASTER database we’ll have to consider few other things like changing start-up parameter for SQL Server Service. I will also mention those stops here for better understanding. Let’s do it step-by-step.

Step 1: Query sys view and note down the existing location for MASTER database

USE MASTER 
GO 
SELECT 
NAME, 
PHYSICAL_NAME AS 'PhysicalFilePath', 
STATE_DESC AS 'DB Status' 
FROM SYS.MASTER_FILES 
WHERE NAME LIKE 'Mast%'

Step 2: Run alter database command and change the location for database files

ALTER DATABASE MASTER 
MODIFY FILE 
( 
NAME = MASTER, 
FILENAME= 'C:\SQLDB\Demo\Master.mdf' 
) 
GO 
ALTER DATABASE MASTER 
MODIFY FILE 
( 
NAME = MastLog, 
FILENAME= 'C:\SQLDB\Demo\MastLog.mdf' 
) 
GO 

Step 3: Stop SQL Server Service and move database files to new location

Step 4: Restart SQL Server Service, surprised ?

 

Step 5: This was expected, let’s see what errorlog has to say about this!

Refer the highlighted section, SQL Server service could not find the files. This is because we have moved that files to new location.

Step 6: Okay, so let’s go and change the start-up parameter. We can do this using Configuration manager.

Step 7: Right click on SQL Server service –> Properties –> Start-up Parameter

Step 8: Make correction in path for Master.mdf and Master.ldf

Step 9: Start SQL Server service, this time it will start.

You are done!!

Note: This is to be done when we have to do relocate databases to new drive, or file organization, or some error which force us to do this.

-- Hemantgiri S. Goswami

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Using NOLOCK hint

Use NOLOCK hint to avoid block - this is what I have often heard/see in many forums I participate, during local user group events and meeting. I have always advised that its not that good idea to use hints, as it may cause data corruption and blocking. And, anyways, there are many things that you can do to avoid blocking, like:

1. use sp for everything (almost)  
2. try to avoid using cursor
3. transaction shouldn't be too big etc
4. and, use READPAST hint , I will still say, use this only when you don't have choice

But these all comes from the experience from the field and haven't anything concrete to quote as reference point until last night, I was googling something and this blog article from  Dave, on MSDN Blog showed up.  Now, I can quote SQL Server NOLOCK Hint and Other poor ideas as reference to my peers,and friends at local user group, and I am referencing it here for you to read and make a note.  


I hope this helps.


-- Hemantgiri S. Goswami (http://www.sql-server-citation.com/) 

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Download free eBook on SQL Server 2008 R2

In this quarter Microsoft Press has gift a free eBook on "Introduction to SQL Server 2008 R2", a book written by Microsoft SQL Server MVP Ross Mistry and Stacia Misner.

This book has 10 Chapters and 216 pages which covers

• Enhancements in SQL Server 2008 R2
• Multi Server Administration
• Data Tier Application
• HA and Virtualization Enhancements
• Server Consolidation and Monitoring 
• Data Warehousing
• Master Data Services
• Event Processing with StreamInsigh
• SSRS Enhancements
• Self-Service Analysis using PowerPivot

Isn't this list looking great? I just have downloaded this book in PDF format, alternatively you can download this book in XPS format as well.

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Download SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP

Microsoft has releases the new CTP of the MS SQL Server 2008 R2, here is the download page to Download November CTP of the MS SQL Server 2008 R2 http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2Downloads.aspx


Find the information on the System Requirement here >http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms143506(SQL.105).aspx

More information about the SQL Server 2008 November CTP >http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/R2.aspx

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